I've been listening to the very moving tribute to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson on NPR's Open Source with Christopher Lydon. Hearing Craig Smith, Peter Sellars, and Peggy Pearson talk about Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and hearing excerpts from the recordings is just overwhelming. I remember reading about the Peter Sellars production of Bach cantatas in Europe, but I was never aware that they were done by the Emmanuel musicians with Craig conducting.
It is a powerful intersection of personal reality with art that places a singer on a gurney in a hospital gown as she sings Bach's transcendent aria of acceptance. She must have been an extraordinary artist to hear in person.
The Emmanuel Church musicians have been performing Bach's cantatas for years under the tutelege of Craig Smith. I was fortunate enough to hear many of these musicians under the baton of John Harbison at Harvard's Sanders Theater performing the St. Matthew Passion in 1976 or 77. I never expect to hear that music performed with more conviction or understanding. The experience that most of the players onstage had garnered over the years playing and singing Bach cantatas every Sunday with Craig at Emmanuel, or performing with Boston's independent chorale The Cantata Singers combined to produce a remarkable level of musicianship under Harbison's leadership.
It was through that environment that Lorraine Hunt Lieberson passed, learning and at the same time enriching others with her commitment and spiritual depth. I once heard Robert Reynolds say that a conductor should always ask what depths a piece plumbs and ask himself or herself if they are able to go to that depth. I have the impression that Lorraine Hunt Lieberson was someone who came close to equalling the depth of all the music she graced with her singing.
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